Title

Authors

Publication Date

4-2013

Abstract

[Excerpt] The higher rates of workplace violence in the government were partly due to the high rates of workplace violence attributed to law enforcement and security employees (figure 2). The rate of workplace violence for law enforcement and security employees was a high of 672.3 per 1,000 in 1994, declining to 109.3 in 2011. These law enforcement and security occupations accounted for over half of the violence committed against government workers and were concentrated most heavily in state, county, and local government.

The estimates of nonfatal violent victimization in the workplace against government employees are based on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which collects information on nonfatal crimes against persons age 12 or older, reported and not reported to the police, from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. In this report, nonfatal workplace violence includes rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault (serious violent offenses), and simple assault against employed persons age 16 or older that occurred while at work or on duty. Information on workplace homicide in this report was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) (see Methodology). Workplace homicide includes the homicide of employed victims age 16 or older who were killed while at work or on duty and excludes death by accident.

Trend estimates of nonfatal workplace violence are based on 2-year rolling averages centered on the most recent year. For example, estimates reported for 2011 represent the average estimates for 2010 and 2011. For some tables in this report, the focus is on the single 10-year aggregate period from 2002 through 2011. These approaches increase the reliability and stability of estimates, which facilitates comparisons over time and between subgroups. Trend estimates of workplace homicide are based on a single most recent year estimates. For example, estimates of workplace homicide for 2011 represent the estimate for 2011 only.